‘The Tomorrow People’ Q&A: Peyton List On The Shocking New Breakout

February 5, 2014 10:06 AM PST

Leading a rag-tag gang of advanced species humans has turned out to be a tough job for Peyton List’s Cara on “The Tomorrow People.”

There have been challenges from secret government agency Ultra, and from new breakouts, but in this Wednesday’s episode, it seems she may have to contend with a situation that is a truly unique combination of the two, when “Graceland’s” Serinda Swan guest stars.

To hear Peyton tell it, Serinda’s incoming character not only has connections to Ultra’s top brass, but she has some powers worthy of “TTP” golden boy Stephen.

During a chat with AccessHollywood.com, Peyton addressed the new challenges coming to our subway-dwelling super-humans and hinted that Cara’s leadership is about to alter her romantic relationship with on-again/off-again boyfriend John (Luke Mitchell).

AccessHollywood.com: Serinda Swan is coming on as the ‘rogue breakout’ – at least that is how she’s described in the previews. Are her powers going crazy?

Peyton List: Well, the interesting thing about this week’s upcoming episode is there is something different about her. In the past we’ve seen a lot of breakouts where they’re using their powers for self-serving purposes or maybe they’re using them to teleport into places they’re not supposed to be teleporting. Sometimes we see breakouts who don’t have control of their powers. We see something completely different with this breakout and what’s interesting is that we’re going to be exploring yet another shift in what you’re capable of doing, what your powers can be used for. She is sort of somebody that we never saw coming, but it makes for a great episode.

Access: It looks like, from the previews, she’s The Founder’s daughter. Does that make her more dangerous?

Peyton: I think you can deduce that… we have this Founder, who we’re assuming has founded Ultra, who has been with Ultra from the beginning, who’s obviously extremely powerful. … If you think about Stephen and his dad… we know how incredible powerful Stephen’s dad was, which has made Stephen really special and he has the ability to stop time, which none of us can do. We look at The Founder and his child might be on a similar plane as Stephen because of that. … I did not see that The Founder would have a kid. I didn’t see that coming. And the idea of that? We don’t know if The Founder’s good or bad, but he’s certainly powerful… so that’s what we will be exploring coming up.

Access: Speaking of children of Tomorrow People, we just found out that Stephen’s younger brother, Luca, has powers too. Are we going to be exploring that soon?

Peyton: We will. … We pick up [in] this next episode exactly where we left off. … It completely throws Stephen when he realizes that his brother may be breaking out and it’s right in front of him.

Access: Are we going to get to see you interact with Serinda’s character or are you dealing with the situation elsewhere because you’re the leader now?

Peyton: It’s been a bit of a shift. John usually made pretty consistent decisions. I think Cara… is not entirely sure what kind of leader she wants to be and how she will make her decisions and we’ve seen her kind of go back and forth between ‘do nothing’ and ‘full speed ahead.’ I think she’s trying to figure out (like we saw John struggle with) – with some breakouts, is it better to leave it up to Ultra, or is it better to bring them in regardless of what they’ve done or regardless of how dangerous they might be? … It’s a tossup. It’s hard to say because if you’re dealing with a paranormal that’s stronger than they are, sometimes they don’t know if it’s better to watch and see what happens. … So, when we meet this new breakout in the upcoming episode, you see them kind of trying to figure out what to do because this is a very powerful breakout, and any time they try to do something new, there might be something that goes terribly wrong. That much Cara has learned.

Access: And it looks like something that might go terribly wrong involves Stephen being strapped to a chair at Ultra. John wants to save him and Cara is urging caution in the preview, which is kind of interesting.

Peyton: Yes.

Access: Recently, she saved Astrid, and went back and saved John when Russell was telling her not to. So, a bit of a reversal from that…

Peyton: Cara’s been known to tell people one thing and do something different when it comes to herself. Everything’s relative. It’s interesting coming up because I think that goes to the point again where Cara’s not really sure what kind of leader that she is. When she gets the call from Astrid that John’s been shot, she just gets tunnel vision. It doesn’t matter who’s talking to her, whose saying what, she’s not going to ask permission, she’s just gone. She’ll throw herself in the line of fire. We’ve seen her do this again and again when it comes to John. When he was captured at Ultra she was willing to just throw herself at Jedekiah, on his mercy and kidnap his girlfriend. She does crazy things when it comes to John… but when it comes to other people, she tries to have a much more objective point of view. … There are reasons for why it would be Cara on that side of the argument and John on the other side and what’s interesting about the changing dynamics down in the lair with the leadership roles is it directly affects the personal relationship and the personal relationship between Cara and John. You can’t have all this change and expect it not to bleed over into the romantic relationship.

Access: Stephen Amell is social media savvy and he and Willa Holland posted a photo of them doing a ‘Tomorrow People’ style moment where someone is tossed through space. Is there a rivalry between your two camps or a thing where you all play with each other?

Peyton: I wouldn’t say it’s a rivalry. We have a very good relationship with ‘Arrow’ because we share so many people in common and we’re in Vancouver as well. I think they tease us. I think it’s a sibling relationship, especially since we share the same night right now and they’ve been on the air for a year longer and because Stephen and Robbie are cousins. I think there’s a really fun relationship there and I think it’s really fantastic that they did that photo.